The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has committed to finalising all cases of malpractice, involving some schools and students in the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), and will release the results on February 28, this year.
The Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Mr John Kapi, said to ensure fairness to all other affected candidates, the Council had filed a stay of execution pending appeal after the court ruled that the results of the affected candidates of these schools should be released when some affected candidates of schools who were alleged to have engaged in examination malpractice (ie collusion) during the WASSCE (SC), 2024 took the issue to court.
“The stay of execution is fixed to be heard on February 20, 2025,” he said.
This was made known at a press briefing on Friday to provide updates on irregularities in last year’s WASSCE for school candidates.
Mr Kapi, therefore, appealed to affected students, parents and stakeholders to use caution as it proceeded through a methodical approach to finalise the process before the results were released.
“We wish to appeal to parents, guardians and the candidates involved to cooperate with the Council to enable it expedite action on the release of outstanding results,” he noted.
He gave an assurance that WAEC had a robust system and procedure for dealing with withheld results, and as such was not resorting to arbitrariness.
The Head of Public Affairs also noted that a number of irregularities were recorded in the course of the examination which ranged from bringing foreign material into the examination halls, snapping and posting of questions on social media, distribution of photocopied responses to candidates and cases of invigilators assisting candidates in the examination halls.
“A number of these cases which were of criminal nature were reported to the police for appropriate action, while others involving candidates directly were reported to the office for appropriate sanctions to be applied,” he added.
Furthermore, Mr Kapi stressed that the WAEC had cancelled a total of 4,108 candidates’ subject results for bringing foreign material into the examination hall, while 483 candidates’ entire results were cancelled for possession of mobile phones in the examination hall.
Additionally, he indicated that WAEC was withholding of subject results of 781 candidates, entire results of 209 candidates for various suspected offences, and subject results of candidates from 319 schools after it completed investigations into these malpractice cases.
“The withholding of results came as a result of reports made by examiners who in the course of marking the scripts discovered some alleged instances of collusion in the scripts of the candidates,” he stated.
Moreover, Mr Kapi observed that the increase in malpractice cases in the Council’s examinations was alarming, stressing that the fight against this menace was a collective one.
He urged Parents, guardians, the media and stakeholders to speak out boldly against this menace in order to give examination the credibility it deserves, and ensure that certificates were awarded to people who truly deserve them.
BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA
